


Sensing Pandora

by BrynnH87



Category: Avatar (2009), The Sentinel
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-04
Updated: 2013-02-04
Packaged: 2017-11-28 06:01:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/671092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrynnH87/pseuds/BrynnH87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blair is in the Avatar program and is paired with a human soldier, Jim Ellison.  They find that he is Cha’la’lei  (a Sentinel) and endeavor to find out what that means for them and for the Omaticaya.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sensing Pandora

**Author's Note:**

> This is a somewhere between a Sentinel/Avatar Crossover, a Sentinel/Avatar Fusion, and a just plain AU with bits of both. Some characters are more or less the same, some are a little different and some are simply made up. It's really not necessary to be familiar with either fandom. Because it's so difference, I kind of approached it as almost an original fiction and described anything necessary to understand the story. Any differences in this story from either of the two fandoms were intentional because it worked better with the story I wanted to tell, and because my muse can be dang bossy when she wants to be and this is the way she insisted it happened! How can you argue with a muse?

Grace and I, and a few of the other Avatar drivers, stood at a window overlooking the landing pad.

“Great! More soldiers.” Grace grimaced.

No one wanted to comment. We all knew how Grace felt about soldiers, and it was definitely a discussion for another time. 

We had heard that another group of hired hands were coming in today, and we were all a little curious about who, and how many, that might entail. Scientists were certainly losing ground on this expedition, as least as far as numbers were concerned. But, that discussion was shelved for the moment, too, because there was a commotion on the field. One of the soldiers, near the back of the group coming off the transport, had dropped to his knees and had his hands over his ears.

“What the shit is that about?”Norm, one of the avatar drivers, asked.

“Beats me,” I answered. “It almost looks like he’s in pain.”

“What could be causing him pain out there?” Norm asked.

As we watched, the XO yanked the man to his feet and berated him as they slowly made their way toward the building.

“Does he have his mask on right?” Mike, one of the other drivers hadn’t been paying a lot of attention to the soldiers. One of the female scientists had joined us at the window, and he had been far more interested in chatting her up, than in sizing up the strength of the ‘army’ Quaritch was amassing.

“As far as I can tell,” I answered. I was intrigued, though, and continued watching the man as the XO tore into him and herded him into the building. I hadn’t had a lot of time to notice, but what I had observed of the man before he collapsed, he had walked with the same arrogant swagger as all the other ‘soldiers’. Now, though, this particular soldier walked slightly hunched over, barely keeping his hands from his ears. The XO was still yelling at him, as he practically pushed him into the building. Norm and Mike was calling the man a ‘wuss’ and worse, and finally had walked away with a ‘party over’ attitude, since the rest of the soldiers were off the field now, and there really was quite a lot of work that could be done. Somewhere along the line, Grace had stormed off to yell at Parker Selfridge again - not that it ever made much of an impression on him.

I couldn’t quite pull my attention away from the man on the field, though, so I headed toward the main doors. As I drew near where the soldier stood with the XO, I overheard bits of their conversation.

“I don’t know, sir.” The man was trying to explain. “It’s just that the noise got the best of me. I wasn’t expecting it. It’s caused a hell of a headache, sir.”

“Suck it up Ellison!” The XO spit out. “There are a lot worse dangers on Pandora than a little noise on an airfield. Shit, man, I thought you had experience!”

“I do sir. I was just unprepared. It won’t happen again.”

“Make sure it doesn’t, soldier.” And the XO stomped off. 

‘Nice guy,’ I thought about the XO. But then, it really wasn’t unexpected behavior of the military types around here. I watched as Ellison made his way to the group orientation Quaritch was holding, but that interested me not at all. I’d seen it before, and was singularly unimpressed. 

I made my way back to the lab, and to the work that I really should be doing. The closer I got, the more I heard the commotion in the lab and Grace’s angry voice filled the air.

“I already object to soldiers accompanying the helicopter. There is no way in hell that I’m going to assign a human soldier to every avatar. What the hell do you think they can do anyway? Bullets don’t work on most indigenous predators, and humans are bite-sized to most of these animals. What possible reason might there be for having them ‘guard’ the avatars? It’ll turn out that we have to guard them and it’ll take time from our studies. So, in case you missed the answer, NO!”

“Let me restate this, Grace,” Parker was being at his asshole best, “This is not negotiable. Much of the funding for the avatar program comes from the same people who run the mining program, and since we have had a couple of fatal or near fatal run-ins with the animals, and the ‘people’ for that matter, the people with the money want some assurances that the very expensive avatars are not just snacks for all the big-bads out there!”

"Oh, now I get it," Grace answered sarcastically. "Let's feed them the human soldiers instead. You finally had a great idea there Parker. I like that one."

Parker just rolled his eyes. I did have to concede, silently, that Selfridge had a point about the danger at least. Not six months ago, the then-new commander, Colonel Quaritch came to the planet. Grace tried to explain the dangers of the planet, but he was a gun-ho, macho bastard who took as dim a view of scientists in general – and Grace in particular – as she did of soldiers. His first trip out ended disastrously. Several of his team was killed, and he was brought in holding on to life by shear cussedness. None of us really mourned the fact that he was seriously injured, though we wouldn’t wish a Thanator attack on anyone. We rather saw it as ‘his own fault’. None of us are callous – as a general rule – but for him, we’d make an exception. He was just that much of a bastard. We had more feeling for the three men in his command who had been mauled to death. Oddly enough, though, the predominant emotion was not sympathy (though that was there too), it was anger; anger that these poor men had to follow that asshole into hostile environment that didn’t have to have ‘unknown dangers’. We had tried to tell the colonel about the dangers and he refused to believe we could possibly know anything that he didn’t. Well, he and his men paid for that lack of knowledge.

Damned if he didn’t surprise us all though – and honestly disappoint Grace – by surviving his injuries. Then, he further astonished us by staying on the planet and in command of the troops. He even wore the hideous scars on his face – and one assumes on the rest of his body – as a badge of honor. Grace said that he was more dangerous now than ever. Now he had a personal vendetta against the planet and every creature on it, and that he made no distinction between animals and people. He just hated them all. We all knew a confrontation of some sort was coming, but we tried to just live our lives one day at a time and hope that when it came, we could somehow prevail. 

Now here we were in a confrontation with Parker and we were losing ground. Grace opened her mouth to argue, but Parker gave her a look that told her argument would be futile. She huffed out an exasperated breath and stormed out the door. I think we just lost round one.

I understood Grace’s concern about the militarization of the project. The Pandora Project had started out as a scientific venture, funded by Earth’s government with the thoughts toward colonization. When it had been discovered that the planet’s environment was much too hostile for that, official interest waned for a while, though the powers that be did keep a small contingent on the planet, in case they could find something else to make the initial expense worth it. Grace Augustine had been on one of the original survey teams and had just fallen in love with the planet and with what little she could learn about the people. She conceived the Avatar project, and came up with the money and the scientists to make it a reality.

It was an amazing idea. We combined human DNA with that of the indigenous population and grew something that looked like them that we could control, or ‘drive’ from our lab. It took about six weeks to grow an avatar body, and it was insanely expensive to do so, which was why there were very few of us. Grace was always looking for money to fund more avatars, and had finally come up with the funds for two more. We just didn’t know yet who those two drivers would be. The entire idea was pure genius, though. In the avatar body, we didn’t need a breathing mask, we were better proportioned for the environment, and we were more likely to be accepted by the natives, which was as much one of Grace’s goals as was learning about the science of the planet.

On the acceptance front, though, we’d only had limited success by that point. Grace had established a school and had even managed to get the children and some young adults to attend. The older adults refused to admit that there was anything we could teach them that they needed to know. The more I learned about the planet – and especially the people – the more I actually agree with them on that point. Grace mostly agreed with it too, but had seen the school as a means of cultural exchange (in both directions) more than just ‘us’ teaching ‘them’, but we hadn’t really convinced the adults of that yet.

We had a good thing going for a while. The avatars mingled with the indigenous population – as much as they would let us – and needed very little in the way of protection. That is, until the few humans that Earth’s government had left on Pandora, found a rare mineral – with the ludicrous name of ‘unobtainium’ – on the planet in an abundance never found elsewhere. Suddenly, the powers that be were interested in Pandora again, and the ‘soldiers’ started to pour in.

Machines started strip-mining uninhabited parts of the planet, but Grace had said what we were thinking. “That won’t hold them for long.”

Parker Selfridge was in charge of the unobtainium project, and, while he was an asshole who only cared about the bottom line, he had left the avatar project alone, for the most part. The only change he made, at first, was that we now needed a human security contingent along with us anytime we ventured off-base…hence, more soldiers of fortune who were ex-military or from other walks of life; but, according to Grace, anyone with a gun was a ‘soldier’ and she took a very dim view of them. Now that Quaritch was in charge of the military contingent, things are starting to change again, and not for the better. This latest change would put soldiers with every Avatar. 

No one really thought that Quaritch, or Selfridge for that matter, really believed there was any need or any advantage to having the soldiers there. It was a power play, to show us that they were in charge, and an excuse to bring more 'soldiers' to the planet. It rankled all of us, Grace in particular, but at this time, we couldn’t really see what we could do about it. All we could do was hope that at some point in the future, a way to fight this militarization process would present itself - preferably before there were enough soldiers to escalate an already tense situation to a full scale war.

 

+=+=+=+=+

Part 2

Life went on as it had for a while. Our unit didn’t have any field missions for a couple of days, so, with the exception of complaints from those Avatars who did have them, who had had to have human soldiers with them, life wasn’t notably different. We had lab experiments we were conducting and that brought me into the infirmary more than once, to use some of the equipment there. 

On one such trip, I ran into the man who had had such trouble on the airstrip the other day. James Ellison was his name. 

“I’m telling you, the medicine you gave me is not working!” The guy was yelling at the poor duty nurse and I could tell from her expression that it had been going on for a while. “I can’t believe you people can put up with this noise all the time. I’ve got a killer headache. Can’t you give me anything stronger for this?”

“Sir, if I give you anything stronger, it will knock you out.” This was one of the sweetest nurses we had here, but she was getting pissed off. I could tell. She couldn’t quite hide the snide tone as she continued, “And, while I, personally, would be all for that, I imagine 

Colonel Quaritch would have my head. So, you’re just going to have to suck it up and deal with it.”

She handed him a couple of tablets and stormed off. Boy, if you can piss off ‘Nurse Sweety’, you have to be a real bastard! I made a mental note to steer clear of James Ellison. 

 

*/*/*/*/*

Several days later found us out in the jungle, with our shiny new human guards and I decided that the fates hated me. Of all the new recruits who could have been paired up with me on this useless endeavor, lucky me, I got Jim Ellison. We’d been in the bush for an hour and the man hadn’t stopped complaining for a second.

“Look man, it wasn’t my idea to have you shadow me all day,” I said as the complaining was finally getting to me. 

“Well, it certainly wasn’t mine either, short stuff.” Great, the guy had a sense of humor. In avatar form, I was far taller than him, though he was probably referring my human form, but I’d deal with him for that remark later.

“Cut me some slack, Ellison.’ I looked down at him. “You’ve been bitching for the last hour. Give it a rest!”

“You’re telling me that sound doesn’t bother you?”

“What sound, Ellison? We’re in the jungle! There are a million sounds!”

“I mean the sound that’s always there. I heard it when I first got off the transport. Kind of this high pitch, tingly sort of sound.”

“A tingly sound?”

“Can it, Sandburg. I mean it. I can’t take much more of this. It’s always there! I had kind of gotten used to it back at camp. It was annoying, but more or less bearable as long as I ate the infirmary’s ‘pain killers’ like candy. But, it’s worse here in the jungle and the farther in we go, the worse it gets.”

I hadn’t really taken the time before to listen to what the man had been complaining about, but now I could see that he was really frustrated over something. Actually, once I looked closely, I noticed that he looked like he was in pain.

“Something’s really bothering you, man,” I remarked.

“Ya think, Sandburg?” Ellison was really in a bad mood. “My only question is ‘why isn’t it bothering you!’ Aren’t the avatars supposed to have more sensitive hearing than we poor lowly humans?”

“Somewhat,” I answered. “Sensitive to a broader range, maybe. I don’t think we can necessarily hear softer sounds than humans, or any farther away. Then again, from what I can gather, actual Na’vi can hear even better than the Avatars. See better too, I think. I’ve been gathering data on comparative…”

“Save the lecture, Chief.” This man was getting positively surly. “God! You can’t hear that? It’s getting worse!” He put his hands to his ears and was now in obvious pain. 

Just then, he stopped, put his arm out, trying to stop my progress – which actually looked rather silly since his head came to about my hip – and looked around cautiously.

“We’re being watched,” he said.

“Yeah, probably,” I agreed. “The Omaticaya keep pretty close tabs on our comings and goings, and we’re passing awfully close to ‘spirit tree’ this time out and they’re very protective of that, so I’m sure they’re nearby.”

“Yes, they are.” He agreed. “I’ve known for a while that we were being followed, but this is something different. A presence of some kind. I can almost hear voices, but then not really.”

“Yeah, the jungle can play tricks on you, man… especially your first time out.”

He shot me a look. “This isn’t exactly my first time in a jungle, junior,” he bit out and I refrained from telling him that Pandora jungles aren’t exactly like anything he may have encountered on Earth. He continued too quickly. “And, this is no ‘trick’, Chief. I hear someone out there…well, no…not really ‘out there’… more like ‘right here’ but sort of all around too.”

He really was making no sense at all. I didn’t really hear or sense anything, but suddenly, out of nowhere, something I’d never seen before started toward us. It looked like the biggest dandelion seed I’d ever seen, but was moving with much more purpose. In fact, it was moving right toward us. No, more like it was moving right toward Jim.

He swatted at it instinctively, but then said, puzzled. “This is part of the noise.” I still didn’t hear anything and this ‘dandelion seed’ didn’t really look inclined to make any kind of noise, but I always make it a point not to piss off crazy men carrying guns. So, I kept my mouth shut. By this time, more and more of the ‘seeds’ had started toward Jim. They were swarming now, and landing on him. The occasional one or two would check me out too, but they were mostly more interested in Ellison. The soldier actually was starting to look a little alarmed, which unsettled me too.

I called out in my best Na’vi to the watchers I knew must be nearby, just out of sight. “We need a little help here, guys! What are these things? And what do they want with … my friend?”

One of the older teens, Se’ela whom I knew from the school came forward and answered in broken English (probably out of courtesy to the human present whom I’m certain she figured - rightly so - didn’t know Na’vi).

“These are hy’ala... very pure spirits. I have never seen so many of them together before.” She was genuinely surprised, and a little awed. “I do not know what they are doing around this hu-man. But they only visit special people. Ones with a special … connection – is that the word? – to Eywa.” 

“These are the hy’ala?” I had heard about them from the kids at the school. Like I said, the school was to be a place of cultural exchange and I had learned much from my students.

But, before the young girl could answer, the spirits surrounding Jim started ‘pushing’ at his back. It’s not like they actually had any force, but they were definitely trying to get him to go forward.

‘They are leading to Spirit Tree,” Se’ela was astonished.

She was quickly joined by another youth, her brother Ken’ar’i. Slightly younger than Se’ela, he had never really mastered much English, so he spoke in Na’vi. “They must not go to Spirit Tree. Dream-walkers are not allowed there; much less these little humans.” He was clearly livid.

But Se’ela held her ground. “The hy’ala wish it, little brother. You cannot dictate to the hy’ala."

“Mo’at will be angry!”

“She will not. She will see the way of it. Eywa has sent these souls to usher this one to her. I don’t know why, but it is not for us to ask.”

I had been so interested in the conversation of the two young Omaticaya that I wasn’t paying attention to Jim. He was slowly moving toward ‘spirit tree’, with a glazed look on his face. I knew that the Na’vi and the ‘spirits’ wouldn’t really hurt someone who wasn’t hurting them, but I really wasn’t sure about following (leading?) these things to ‘spirit tree’. Ken’ar’i was right. The people would not be happy about a human (or even an avatar) going to spirit tree. And up until a couple of minutes ago, Jim showed no interest in doing so; in fact, he had wanted to get out of the jungle just as fast as he could. Now he looked almost like he was in a trance and was well on his way to Spirit tree, surrounded – almost completely covered, in fact – with hy’ala. I was a little concerned at the change.

“Jim, what’s going on man?”

“They’re the noise, Chief… or at least part of it.” He answered and had a really silly looking grin on his face. “They say the noise is Eywa, and the flow of energy between all living things. That’s why it kind of tingles, I guess.” He was moving forward the whole time he talked and he didn’t seem the least bit bothered by it. From what little I knew of him, it didn’t seem like him at all.

“They say, Jim?” I picked out part of what he said and then turned to Se’ela. “These things can talk?”

When she didn’t immediately answer, I put my hands on her shoulders and gently turned her to face me instead of watch Jim with obvious awe and confusion. “Se’ela! What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure I know. The hy’ala talk, but usually only to Eywa and Mo’at. I have never heard of them speaking to anyone other than Omaticaya, not even the dream-walkers. They usually stay away. And if they would approach, I can’t imagine anyone but our spiritual leader being able to hear them.”

“Cha’la’lei!” The other Na’vi murmured.

“What’s that, Ken’ar’i?” I asked.

But it was the young girl who answered. “Cha’la’lei! I do not know your word for it. Sometime’s one of the people is born who can actually hear the spirits talking to them. They can feel the flow of energy between all the living things on the planet. They can see subtle differences in colors at Spirit tree. It is said that these have a direct line to Ewya.” Se’ela had been in a kind of daze of her own through this whole explanation, but now, suddenly seemed to shake herself back to reality. “But, there has not been a Cha’la’lei for three generations…and they are only of our people. A hu-man couldn’t be a Cha’la’lei!” But then she looked down the path where Jim was still being ushered by hy’ala, now so covered by them that I wondered how – or if – he could see where he was going. And where he was going was clearly straight toward Spirit Tree. Se’ela looked completely bewildered. This had already shaken her to her core, and 

I could tell it wasn’t over yet. But for now, she just had one simple question. “Hu-mans cannot be Cha’la’lei! ...Can they?” 

*/*/*/*/*/*

I had only heard of Spirit Tree. I knew where it was, of course, but we all steered clear of it as much as possible. Now, I was standing in the middle of it, watching my usually grumpy human colleague sit in a stupor in the middle of it. Both Omaticaya stood outside. 

Nothing I said could make them come in. The hy’ala seemed perfectly content to let me come with Jim, though. They were still completely covering him, but would come over to inspect me from time to time. As crazy as it sounded, they seemed curious about me. But they seemed positively smitten with Jim, and he with them. I had never seen him so serene. Of course, I didn’t know the man that well, but before now, I would have sworn he just didn’t do serene.

Suddenly, he stood, looked directly at me and said, “We must go to Home-tree and talk to Mo-at.”

“How do you know about Mo-at?”

“They told me.” He indicated the hy’ala that were once again ushering him forward as though that explained everything, and he headed off, unerringly, toward another of the Omaticaya’s ‘off-limits’ locations. 

*/*/*/*/*/*

Part 3

Okay, my days are weird enough as a general rule – living on a remote planet whose creatures (with six legs, mind you) would gladly eat us for any meal of the day, and whose two legged beings thought of us as little more than annoying children (even though we call them savages). But now, my human escort was talking to dandelion seeds. How much ‘weird’ can one man take? Possibly even weirder still is that my young Omaticaya friends thought this was perfectly normal – well, not that a human was doing it, but that it could be done.

And now, to continue the weirdness, we were heading toward ‘home tree’. In all the time I’d been working with the people of this planet, I’d never once been there. Heard about it, sure! But I’d never been there. It was off limits to ‘dream walkers’ (as the people call Avatars) but, to add to the ‘weird’ for the day, here we were, Avatar and human of all things, blithely being led to probably the second most heavily guarded place on the planet (after having just visited the first) by two teens and several dozen dandelion seeds.

Okay, they weren't really dandelion seeds. Both the Omaticaya and Jim insisted that they were spirits and that a rare few can actually hear them. Whatever they were, I did know that Jim has never looked more content. All the complaining I’d heard all morning has ceased and the lines of pain in the soldier’s face were completely gone. Actually, he almost looked a little blissed out. I would have been worried about possible chemicals in the hy’ala that was acting like a drug – they were all over the man – but Se’ela and her brother both assured me that there was nothing like that. (Of course, they wouldn't know anything about possible human reactions to things that were not a problem to them, so I hadn't completely ruled that out). I tried to radio the helicopter that should still be around somewhere, but there was too much static on the line. Jim had said that was because we were so close to ‘spirit tree’ and ‘the flow of energy’ but it didn't seem to be getting much better the farther we got into the forest or the closer we got to ‘home tree’.

The scientist in me knew that those two places were the homes of some of the richest deposits of unobtainium on the planet and I had to wonder if that’s what was causing the interference.

We finally reached ‘home tree’ and my little anthropological heart died and went to heaven. This was the biggest tree I had ever seen, but more than that, the inside fit so seamlessly into the living needs of the people, it was like a giant architect had sculpted the whole place, just for them. It had spiraled branches so that the people could move between levels and had places to sleep nestled at various heights. To me, it looked more beautiful than any castle or mansion that man had ever built. These people had achieved a level of ‘oneness’ with nature that I had never seen or even heard of before.

I wasn’t so caught up in awe of the place that I had missed the commotion we caused, though. The people on the floor of the tree were stirred up a little already, no doubt because of reports from scouts who had seen us coming. But as soon as the nearest group actually caught sight of us, all hell burst loose.

\------------

Everyone began talking at once, telling us we shouldn’t be there. Jim seemed completely oblivious to the commotion. The hy’ala had delivered him to home-tree and then slowly drifted away. ‘Mission accomplished’ I guess. 

The multitude of voices continued to get louder and angrier until, at last, Mo’at made her way down the spiral to stand before us.

“The hy’ala have called to me,” she started in halting English. “Told me that they have brought a Cha’la’lei.” She looked at me, bewildered. “Surely, a dream-walker is not what they meant.”

“No, Mo’at,” Se’ela stepped forward, emboldened. “It is the human.”

I thought the turmoil was bad when we first walked in. This time, the uproar almost deafened me. No one was willing to admit even the possibility that a mere human could be this almost mythical being. I had to admit, I wasn’t sure I believed it either, but ‘weird’ had left the building a long time ago, and had been replaced with the downright impossible.

Mo’at silenced the crowd however, looked at Se’ela and said, “Speak, child.”

“We were watching the intruders, Mo’at, like you instructed. They walked on and the closer they got to Spirit Tree, the more this little hu-man complained of hearing a noise, and feeling a ‘tingle’. It wasn’t until the Hy’ala swarmed around him that we thought anything of it, but he can talk to the spirits. They led him to Spirit Tree. Eywa told him to come here. He can feel the energy flow between all   
life. I was skeptical at first, but I truly believe he is Cha’la’lei.”

Mo’at looked at me and then at Jim and seemed to finally come to terms with the fact that maybe this human might actually be this honored being. “Leave us,” She finally said to the newly assembled crowd of people, and stood before us to address Jim in halted English. “You are Cha’la’lei? “

Jim extended his hand, but Mo’at just looked at it, so Jim swallowed and dropped his hand, but still answered her as best he could. “That’s what they tell me, ma’am.”

The hy’ala had dispersed, but Jim said they were still around. 

Mo’at was still trying to wrap her head around this new development. “I would not have thought that a human could be a Cha’la’lei. But I will not dispute the word of Eywa.” 

It was obvious that Mo’at was not happy about this, but felt she had no choice in the matter. She filled us in on all she knew of Cha’la’lei. The more she spoke, the more the phenomenon sounded like a Sentinel. In my anthropological studies before I joined Grace’s team, one of the many things I was interested in was the concept of a ‘Sentinel’, a tribal watchman who could hone their senses far beyond what would be ‘normal’ for a human. The description Se’ela had given of the Cha’la’lei, didn’t really ring any bells, because, of course, we have no concept of Eywa on Earth, or of hy’ala or a flow of energy. It fascinated me beyond belief to know that a human could tune into these things so well. We couldn’t even attribute it to Omaticaya DNA in an avatar… Jim was pure human.  
Mo’at was just as at a lost to explain it as I was, but she posited that if we were to make an Avatar for Jim, his abilities might be even more enhanced. I was intrigued by the whole thing, and couldn’t wait to tell Grace, but then Mo’at said something that took me even more by surprise.

“And you,” she looked at me, “are his Cy’ela.”

“I’m his what?” I was stymied. “What’s that?”

“Every Cha’la’lei must have one who watches out for his best interests, while he concentrates on the needs of the tribe.”

Now that she mentioned it, I did remember a reference in Earth lore about a Guide to watch the Sentinel’s back, lest he zone on one sense or another.

“How do you know I’m this…Cy’ela?” I saw the need for such a person, but didn’t really see why she would think I was such a person, except for the fact that I happened to be with Jim at the moment. “I don’t really even know Jim that well. We were just put together for this mission.”

“It matters not if you know each other. Ewya has decided that you are Cy’ela, so it is so.” Mo’at would brook no argument about this, apparently. “The job of the Cy’ela is very important. But I do not see how you will bond.” She dropped that bombshell and moved on with a simple, “Eywa will provide.”

“Bond?” I got hung up on that word. “What does that mean?”

“Cha’la’lei and Cy’ela bond for life,’ she responded, off handed, and then went on to describe the duties and responsibilities of each. 

“What does this bond entail,” I asked, “And what do you mean ‘for life’?”

She just continued on with what she had to say as if I hadn’t spoken. 

“Could we get back to the bonded thing?” I asked, getting a little concerned. Mo’at didn’t stop her recitation, and I was getting even more concerned. Jim seemed to think it was funny. “I really think we need to discuss this bonding thing.”   
Mo’at was getting a little disgruntled at my constant interruptions, so I decided I’d try again later and Jim was trying desperately not to laugh at me, which was not really endearing him to me, but he still looked a little blissed out from the dandelion seeds, so I was going to have to overlook him for now.

*/*/*/*

After much conversation, we were finally allowed to leave. The two Na’vi youth led us back to where the copter had been waiting for us all this time. They were becoming frantic at not having been able to contact us, but they didn’t dare follow us too far into the forest and leave the helicopter unattended, so they had waited.

I couldn’t wait to get back to camp. Grace was going to flip. I was sure she had probably heard stories about the Cha’la’lei – she knew practically every story there was – but it wouldn’t have occurred to her that a human could be one, or that the people would accept a human Cha’la’lei if we could produce one. Both impossible things had happened and I couldn’t wait to see Grace’s face.

Jim’s euphoria was wearing off though and his 'mother of all headaches' was coming back. He had made it out of the jungle just fine. He said the hy’ala were protecting him while he was in the jungle, but now that we were in the helicopter, he was in pain again. 

“Hey man,” I tried to lighten the mood. “At least you know where the noise is coming from, now.”

“Yeah, Junior,” he spat out, “Everywhere! Not especially helpful!”

I rolled my eyes. “I meant, now you know that it’s the flow of energy between everything on the planet.”

“Yeah,” apparently it was his turn to roll his eyes. “Still not helping if I don’t have a way to turn it down.”

That gave me an idea. “Hey, man. Maybe you could.”

He was now very nearly back to his surly best. “Could what, kid?”

“Could turn it down.” I overlooked his attitude. If Mo’at was right, and we were joined in some way as Sentinel and Guide, I was going to have to get used to it. “Think about it man. What good would all this ability be if you couldn’t control it? There’d be no evolutionary advantage to it. There has to be a way, beside just the hy’ala protecting you.”

He rolled his eyes again, but then grabbed his head as he was gripped by a particularly bad headache. 

“Let’s try something, man.” I didn’t like seeing him in pain, but I also knew that unless I could tame my grumpy sentinel, Grace would be too busy being impatient with him to really listen to anything I had to say. “What do you have to lose?” 

He had his eyes closed against the pain, and didn’t open them, but nodded a little, so I took that as a signal to go ahead. “Imagine a dial man…like on a stereo, or an instrument panel. Right now, it’s set to 10 – the highest it’ll go – and that’s why the pain is so bad. 

Do you see the dial Jim?”

He nodded, but still didn’t open his eyes. 

“Okay, so see yourself turning it down, slowly.” I gave him some time to see it and continued. “It’s at nine now.” He nodded. “Eight” he nodded again and took his hands down.

“Seven” he said, and continued the countdown until he got to four.

“Hey Jim,” I interrupted. “I don’t think you want to turn it all the way off, man.” But he continued counting down to zero.

“Jim, can you still hear me? Did you turn everything off?”

He opened his eyes and grinned a little. “Don’t worry junior. I just turned off the pain. I can still hear just fine.”

I still didn’t think turning any dial down to zero was a good idea but I figured I’d deal with that later. At the moment, the helicopter was landing and we had Grace to fill in on everything. 

*-*-*-*-*

Part 4

As I knew would happen, Grace accepted everything we had to say about the Cha’la’lei, but shit a brick over this mythical creature being a ‘soldier’. 

“It makes perfect sense really, if you think about it.” I tried to calm her down. “Cha’la’lei – Sentinels – are hardwired to protect the tribe. What better way to do that then to…

Grace interrupted, “carry big weapons and blow shit up?”

“Among other things,” I grinned, but could see that Jim wasn’t amused. “I imagine that that wasn’t the only reason Jim decided to be a soldier. I would think that the urge to protect people would be stronger than to destroy anything.” Jim nodded but I couldn’t resist messing with him just a little, “though the urge to blow shit up is probably pretty strong too.”

“And getting stronger all the time, Junior.” Jim was trying to be surly again, but I could detect just the tiniest of smiles. Maybe my big, bad, sentinel wasn’t quite as big and bad as he would like everyone to believe.

Grace must have seen the same thing I did because her face softened just a little. She didn’t like soldiers, but she could see this as the opportunity it was, and wouldn’t pass it up just because it came in the form of a military man. “Well,” she said, smiling again. “I think we just found a volunteer for one of our new Avatars.”

*-*-*-*

Jim didn’t wait until we were more than two steps out of the lab before he started griping. “What if I don’t want to be a big, blue freak and go native?” Surly Jim was back in full force as we walked through the hallway. “What if I don’t want to be this ‘cherry-lee’ thing?” 

I rolled my eyes. “ ‘Cha’la’lei’ and I don’t think you have a choice on that one. You already are a Sentinel." He gave me a blank stare but continued walking therefore so did I. “The senses thing? The ‘hearing noises no-one can hear’ thing? God knows what else you’re capable of. If Mo’at is right, not only can you actually hear Eywa and the hy’ala – which let me tell you is a whole other topic of conversation – but all your senses are enhanced. You could smell a change in weather or approaching game. You could hear birds miles away, taste the slightest difference in food to tell whether or not it’s safe to eat. Anything goes man!”

“Why the hell would I want any of that Sandburg!” He stopped abruptly to face me, practically yelling now.

“You don’t have a …” I started, but he grabbed me by the shoulders. 

“You tell me again that I don’t have a choice and I’m going to drop kick you out the nearest window – without a mask!”

“Calm down man.” Jim was a lot more intimidating when I wasn’t in avatar form. “I can’t help it you have these senses, but if Mo’at is right, I’m the one person who can help you with them … not that I quite understand them yet, but, with the whole ‘guide’ thing, I suppose…”

“And that’s another thing!” He lowered his voice a little but was still angry. At least he took his hands off my shoulders. ‘What if I don’t want you tagging around with me everywhere?”

“I’ll be covering your back,” I tried to reason with him, but he was really getting beyond reason at this point.

“You watch my back!” He was definitely shouting again. “That’s rich, Junior!”

“Okay, Mr. Tough Guy Military man,” Yeah, I was shouting at this point too. “I hear that you don’t want this! But, I don’t know how to make it go away!” He turned and starting walking away, so I chased after him. “But, what makes you think I like this any better than you do?” He stopped again and opened his mouth to say something but I pre-empted him. “I get to go from a scientist in Avatar form, in my element, with a pesky ‘tag-along’ soldier, to being nothing more than a ‘tag-along’ myself. I went from expert to side-kick! So what the hell are you bitching about?”

I had finally found something that would shut him up. So I pushed my advantage. “Besides, you seemed happy enough in the jungle.”

He found his voice again. ‘It was those damned ‘powderpuffs’! They had some kind of drug, or put me in a trance, or something.”

“That’s certainly worth looking into, man. You were pretty blissed out.” I took a chance with my life and put my hands on his shoulders…gently…but was ready to run if need be. “But it still doesn’t change the fact that you are a Sentinel. The hy’ala didn’t do that to you, man. They just recognized it in you. You had this ability all along, I would imagine. For some reason, it came to the foreground here, but this was in you all along!”

“I don’t even want to hear that, Chief!” He was actually starting to shake. He really had no clue how to handle this. I kept seeing a glimpse of a human being behind the tough soldier façade. “I’m a soldier, Chief. It’s what I do. It’s what I am!”

As luck would have it, we were in the hallway that led to my living quarters, so I turned him around by the shoulders I was still holding and led him to my room. “Come on man, before you have a meltdown in the hallway.” It was a testament to just how shaken he was, that it let me do it.

*-*-*-*

When we got to my room, I led him inside and seated him on the bed. He was still muttering about how much he didn’t want this, and how he couldn’t do this. He wasn’t angry now. He was confused…and shockingly enough, scared.

“Jim,” I sank down on my knees in front of him and put my hands on his knees. “Come on man. It’s not all that bad. You’ll still be a protector. I don’t have a clue how the bureaucracy will play out. I don’t know if you’ll still answer to Quaritch, or to Grace, or – God help you – both. But you’re still you, man. This doesn’t change that. Not really. It’ll just change how you’re you.”

He gave me a look that told me I wasn’t making a bit of sense to him so I continued. “Okay, man. I know. Not my most eloquent speech. But come on man. I’m freaking out here a little bit too. Did you catch all the ‘bonded for life’ shit Mo’at was throwing around? 

You know, the stuff you found so funny when I tried to have her clarify? It’s not just you that’s involved in this. I think life has changed for both of us in a fundamental way here man. And I’m just as confused and as scared as you are. So we’re going to have to hold each other up here. You can’t corner the market on freak-outs here.”

He looked at me for a long time, then finally grasped my wrists and pulled me to my feet, then swung my hands around a little until I sat on the bed beside him. “Sorry Chief,” was all he managed to say right now. He put his hand on my knee and we both just sat in silence for a while. It didn't solve anything, but it was a step in the right direction and I knew we’d work it out…somehow.

*-*-*-*

Part 5 

I had watched Jim grow closer and closer to the people over the last many weeks. We learned more and more of the Cha’la’lei of the past, and of their role in the tribe, and came to know the individuals in ways that were never allowed before. My inner Anthropologist was delighted, but it was more than just that. I felt myself being drawn to the people even more than I had before and felt myself being tuned in to Jim in ways I didn’t really understand. 

We had been almost constantly working on developing Jim’s senses, and on developing his control of them. He slowly came to embrace them, instead of fighting them. At first, I think it was more an attitude of ‘if I can’t get rid of them, I’ll learn how to turn them all down to normal.’ But, the more he could see the use in them, the more he accepted them as the gift they truly were.

We had been out in the field just as often those next weeks, if not more so, but Grace took us both off any other detail than to get to know the people. So, when we weren’t at the school, we hung out at ‘home tree’ a lot, went on hunts, and attended ceremonies. No one even looked twice at us anymore…the dream-walker and his little human. Everyone revered Jim…made sure to bring him the best cuts of meat, give him an honored seat. And by extension, I was respected as well. Grace still shook her head every time she heard about it. We had tried so hard all those months to even be tolerated, drove avatars to look like the Na'vi so that they would accept us, and due to what Grace called 'an accident of genetics', it was Jim that the people not only accepted but actually honored and he didn't even have to be in avatar form. I think Grace was a little jealous...not that she would ever say so in so many words. But she took acceptance where it came and counted it, at least officially, as a win for all of us.

The children, especially, were fascinated with Jim…both that he looked so different, and that he could do the things he did. They were constantly asking him to see a bird in a tree hundreds of yards away, or to tell what they had for breakfast by smelling their breath. He could do it each time, and received enthusiastic applause and laughter as a reward. Come to think of it, that alone may have gone a long way toward getting Jim to accept his gift. My big, bad, hard-nosed soldier absolutely adored the children – most of whom, incidentally, were taller than he was. (They thought that was funny too).

It wasn’t always fun and games out with the kids, though. One day we were walking to the lake so the children could swim. Kids the universe over, apparently, could find the best tree around, make some kind of rope swing, and use it to swing out over lakes to jump in. The problem was that the trees on Pandora are damned huge and the ropes are vines - usually very strong vines, but just vines, none the less – and were sometimes pretty worn with age. Kylea, one of the younger children wanted to gain Jim’s attention – and approval – and wanted to prove that she was as ‘brave’ as the older ones. She ran with this group because of her brother, Reyin, who was the oldest teen there; almost a man. The group accepted her because of him, but she always wanted to prove herself. She raced up the tree and grabbed a vine, but not the vine used by the older children. Jim yelled to her as soon as he saw it, but it was too late. 

She had jumped from the tree and the old vine gave out. She never made it to the water’s edge, but had plunged about a hundred feet to the floor of the jungle. Jim was off like a shoot and reached her first. Her head was bleeding and she was unconscious, but alive. 

 

“Chief,” he pleaded as I reached his side. “What do we do? I don’t know anything about Na’vi physiology.”

“I don’t know enough.” But then I added, “Go get Mo’at. I’ll bring Kylea as fast as I can.” Jim started running, but Reyin outdistanced him in no time. The man/child wasn’t about to stay with me when he could be getting help for his sister.

Kylea was small, by Na’vi standards, about Jim’s human height, and was nothing for me to carry. We made our way back to the village as fast as we could, but Mo’at met us a couple hundred yards outside ‘home tree’, Jim babbling away at her in English so fast I wasn’t sure she understood it. Jim had started to learn Na’vi but wouldn’t be able to handle an emotionally charged conversation in it. 

Fortunately, Reyin had gotten back to the settlement before Jim and had already clued Mo’at in on what had happened, so she wasn’t dependent on understanding Jim.

I stopped so that Mo’at could get a good look at the child and we rushed into to ‘home tree’. Several other Omaticaya took Kylea from me and they disappeared into the dark recesses of the tree. They seemed to be back there forever.

“Blair,” Jim almost whispered at my side as we sat on one of the many roots, awaiting word. “What good are all these senses if I can’t save a child’s life?”

I hated to see him so distraught. He took everything to heart. He had thoroughly adopted these people as his tribe and he was fiercely protective of each and every one of them.

“Jim, you warned her as soon as you saw it. Kids are fast. They get into things they shouldn’t. It’s what kids do.”

“Not helping, junior.” He snarled, but the more I got to know him, the more I realized there was a heart of gold beating behind that   
grizzly bear exterior and sometimes the snarl was to hide that fact. It didn’t especially work on me anymore.

“Yeah, I know.” I slung an arm around Jim (which must have looked ridiculous to anyone watching, given our difference in size and proportion). “Na’vi kids are tough, Jim. You’ve seen them jump from the upper limbs and bounce on leaves until they hit the bottom.   
They take hits pretty well.”

“This wasn’t a controlled drop, though, chief. She just plummeted straight down…no leaves to bounce off of, and she’s so little.”

“Let’s just wait and see, Jim. Okay?” I sat with him in silence, trying to comfort him with proximity until finally Mo’at came out.

“Kylea will be fine. She’s awake now and asking if you saw her climb the tree. She’ll stay home for a little while, to let her head heal, and she’ll be right back out with the other kids.” Mo’at said, in her careful, precise English.

Jim visibly relaxed, but couldn’t wait to excuse himself and get back to camp. I'd found that Jim didn’t like to appear vulnerable to people, and while he was finally accepting that he has no choice but to let me see him in most situations, he still preferred to have any emotional breakdowns in the privacy of his own room.

The ride home was silent, and I followed him straight to his room as soon as we got to base. He passed people in the hall, without acknowledging them and heaven help the few that tried to talk to him. I've seen lions on the hunt look friendly and growl less fiercely. 

Grace had the bad timing to start down the hall just we were veering off onto the corridor that led to Jim's quarters.

"Hey, you're back early," she greeted. "Debrief in 15 minutes."

Jim just continued on, showing no indication that he even heard her, let alone that he was going to obey her. That still really rankled Grace. She didn't like the idea of a soldier on her team anyway, and one that was going to ignore her just wouldn't work at all. 

"James Ellison, did you hear me?" She could do a fair impression of a lion on the hunt, as well.

"Grace," I headed her off and spoke softly, while my sentinel (whom I was sure could still hear me if he was bothering to listen) continued to storm down the hallway. "Something happened at the settlement and Jim's a little spooked, I think. Can we get back to you later?"

"Blair," she started firmly, "If something happened, then I need to know about it immediately!"

"It won't affect the program. One of the kids got hurt. She's fine, but Jim's protective, so..."

Her face visibly softened. "Okay, Blair. I understand. Take all the time you need, but then I really do need that debrief."

"We had one scheduled for after we were supposed to get back this evening. Could we just do it then? That should be plenty of time."

"Okay," she agreed. There really was no reason to push it up. "You really have your hands full there, don't you?" Meaning with Jim, I'm sure.

"Sometimes," I smiled an agreement and went to head off my distraught sentinel before he went through too many beers or destroyed the room somehow. I never knew when he got like this, if he'd be depressed and silent, and frankly sometimes just downright get drunk; or if he'd get angry and throw things. (As long as they weren't me or mine, I usually let him...depending on how breakable it was and/or how difficult it was to replace.) Feeling vulnerable scared Jim, and fear often comes out as anger in humans.

I stepped cautiously inside Jim's quarters to find the lights still out and Jim nowhere to be found...at least not by non-sentinel eyes.

"So, depression this time then," I muttered to myself.

"You know Chief..." Jim's voice from out of the darkness startled me, even though I had known he had to be there somewhere. "Talking to yourself is a sign of going crazy." He turned on the light by his bed.

"Oh, Jim," I followed his voice and the small light to his bedroom and sat beside him on the bed. "We left 'crazy' a long time ago!"

He made a small sound that was probably supposed to be a chuckle but really bore any kind of lighthearted sound absolutely no resemblance at all. I just sat there, beside him, and waited. Jim didn't respond well to being pushed to talk. He'd talk when he had something to say.

"What good are these senses if I can't help anybody." When he finally did speak, it was to repeat his earlier question, but this time he was quick to continue. "These senses are wasted on me Chief. I can't save anyone. I'm too small for the environment. I'm too slow to act. What good is it to see a problem hundreds of yards away if there is no way to get there in time to fix it. This 'sentinel' is supposed to be a protector of the tribe...is supposed to keep them safe. What the hell good am I if I can't keep them safe!"

"Okay, first of all Jim, we're working on the size issue. It won't be long now till your avatar is ready, but even then you may not be able to be fast enough to get where trouble is all the time." This didn't seem to be helping. "Jim, you help people all the time. But no one can help everyone all the time...not even with sentinel abilities." I put my hand on his knee and continued. "No one can fix everything all the time. And if you think about it, not a single soul on this planet thinks you should be able to...except you."

That at least got him to look at me instead of staring straight ahead like he had been, so I pressed the advantage. "Cut yourself some slack Jim. You do what you can. There's not one Na'vi that thinks you shirk your 'duties' as a sentinel. They all love you and look up to you...especially the kids." He moved as if to speak but I cut him off. "And don't say you let them down, because you didn't. Little kids do things they shouldn't sometimes. Kylea would probably have tried that same stunt whether you were there or not...she's so much younger than the others and she does things all the time to show them she's just as 'grown up' as they are." He looked back down. I wasn't sure if that meant I lost him or he was thinking. "She's going to be fine Jim. You need to let this go man."

He looked at me and then dropped his gaze back to the floor. He'd let it go about 15 minutes after he died. I knew that. Didn't keep me from saying - or even feeling - that he should let it go now. Apparently sitting on the edge of some bed or another seemed to be when we did our best talking. We sat there for a while before he was ready to go back out and face the world.

*/*/*/*/* 

Part 6

In the six weeks it took to grow Jim's new Avatar, the military situation on Pandora slowly heated up. The first couple of weeks, we just went out, business as usual (more or less), but Quaritch was mounting more and more support from the powers that be who funded the entire operation. He just about had them convinced to take a more active role in procuring the unobtainium in larger quantities. The colonel was definitely no longer happy with trace amounts. He wanted to go after the two huge deposits of the mineral, consequences be damned. As out of character as it was, Quaritch had agreed to try Grace's way first, to let Jim, now that he had an elevated status, try to talk to them and convince them to move. Jim knew right away that it would prove to be a fruitless endeavor. The Omaticaya would no more leave home-tree than the collective population of Earth would just up and leave the planet because the local gorillas wanted all the bananas. And there was no way in any universe that they would ever let anyone close to ‘Spirit Tree’...let alone give someone permission to strip mine there.

Jim and I went through the motions, though, talking to the people, hoping to reduce bloodshed when Quaritch inevitably stopped being 'patient' and decided to take the mineral by force. No one really expected him to last as long as he did, but he allowed us the time to grow Jim's Avatar. None of us really understood why. Jim posited that he probably thought that the 'Cha'la'lei' in Avatar form, would hold more sway with the people. Many thought he secretly just liked watching us try what he knew - and probably hoped - would prove futile, and as soon as he got bored watching us scurry around like ants in a flame, trying futilely to come up with a peaceful solution, he would just order his soldiers in and take the unobtainium by force.

It didn't take us long to discover another possible motive for Quaritch's 'cooperation'. He wanted Jim to be his inside man...come up intel that the military wouldn't otherwise be able to access. How many Omaticaya were there? What was the strength of their fighting force. How many other tribes were there and would any of them likely come to the defense of the residents of ‘home tree’. How thick was ‘home tree's’ exterior? Was it lined with anything or was it just wood? What kinds of assaults would likely be fruitful?

For the first several weeks, Jim just fed him useless data - what we did with the tribe, who the leaders were, what the job of the tribe sentinel was and how trusted he was likely to be. But, finally, the colonel stopped waiting for Jim to get with the program and start giving hard intel. 

About five weeks in, Jim came storming into the lab, right before a mission, and he was just livid. I knew he had had a meeting with Quaritch so I could only assume something had happened there, but by the time he got to me, Jim was practically vibrating with ... I didn't know what. Worry? Anger? Hatred? All three?

"What the hell happened to you, Jim?" I asked, a good bit more concerned than the flippant tone suggested. Jim got riled pretty easily, but not this bad. Not bad enough to let it show in public like this.

"Not here, Junior." He walked with me to the bed that would allow me to drive my Avatar, which waited, inert, in the compound we had made out back for training purposes. I never could really convince Jim that walking me to the 'docking station' didn't really do much good. He'd still have to go to the compound to walk with the avatar, or wait on the landing field. "We'll have plenty of time to talk when we're out in the field." I caught the translation - 'I want to be away from possible prying eyes'. Quaritch had minions everywhere it seemed. He always seemed to know what was going on in the lab, even if none of his soldiers seemed to be anywhere near the place.

Once we got to the jungle, Jim finally calmed a little. I had noticed over the last several weeks that Jim seemed to be connected to the jungle in a way I'm not sure even he understood. No matter how upset he was otherwise, in the jungle, he seemed to be centered.

"So," I started. "Are you going to tell me what happened with Quaritch?"

We had been walking but Jim stopped, so I sat down. That brought us to just about the same eye-level. It was a technique I had developed over the short time with my human sentinel - even though it was starting to feel like I had known him all my life.

"He wants me to spy on my people, Chief." He was heartbroken, so I just waited. We already knew that much so there must be something else. "He said if I didn't deliver the serious intel he wanted, he would ship me back Earth-side. I can't have that, Blair...but I can't go against my people, either."

I had actually been expecting something like that. We both knew that Quaritch wasn't going to be satisfied with 'worthless' information for long. I was surprised he had lasted this long. I'm not sure I expected the 'back to Earth' threat, but I expected something.

I wasn't sure what to say to Jim. What do you say to something like that? I had no idea what to do either, but I put my hand on his shoulder and said, "We'll figure something out, Jim."

*/*/*/*

We had been supposed to go to the school that day, but Jim took us to ‘Spirit Tree’ instead. 

"I need to talk to Eywa," he said. He had tried to explain to me how he could communicate with Eywa and why it was easier to talk to her at ‘spirit tree’ but I never really understood it. I equated it with someone wanting to be in church to talk to God even though they could talk to him anywhere. Jim said it was more than that, but it didn't really matter. If this was what he needed, then I'd go along with it and deal with Grace later.

After a short stay there, we headed straight to Mo'at. If those were the two beings that Jim felt he needed to talk to about this, he did it in the order I would have done it...put off Mo'at just as long as possible. We had been trying to talk to her to get her people to leave ‘home tree’ and she could get quite vocal about just how that was not going to happen. I'm not sure what else would be gained by talking to her again, just because there was a threat attached to the situation now, but again, if that was what Jim needed, that's what we would do. Over the last five weeks I had never ceased to be amazed at just how connected Jim and I had become. He was definitely the most important person in my life, bar none. But it was more than that. I could sense when he was near, even before I saw him. I could tell what his mood was before he ever spoke. I pretty much bowed to his every wish...not that I was a wimp or anything, but because I just didn't want to do anything that would upset him. We had been talking about that one evening, and though Jim didn't come out and say it, I got the sense that all of that was the same for him too.

Finally we got Mo'at to take time from her busy schedule to come talk to us. She had adopted my practice of sitting while Jim stood when he was talking. When she had first seen me do it, she was shocked, and told me it was a sign of disrespect to sit when the person talking was standing. Once I explained why I was doing it, though, she saw it as the sign of respect that I meant it to be.

Jim laid out the situation to Mo'at and she listened respectfully, nodding at appropriate times while he reiterated the type of information Quaritch wanted. She had addressed that several times before. She knew that Jim knew all of that information, and was certainly able to tell Quaritch anything he wanted to know. She also told us that she positively knew to her soul that he wouldn't tell Quaritch anything that could hurt the people. She insisted that Jim's spirit was Na'vi and for some reason Mo'at had sent that Na'vi spirit to Earth so that he could someday save his people. I wasn't sure right now how he was going to do that, but I appreciated Mo'at's obvious trust in Jim, and by extension, me. She had told me that Cy’ela could only be people with pure spirits. I was honored, but I still wasn't sure how any of that would help.

So, Mo'at sat patiently through the story until Jim mentioned that Quaritch could send him back to Earth. At that, she jerked to her feet. 

"No! He must not!"

"I know Mo'at," Jim started. "I'll do what I can to avoid that, but I don't want to give him anything he can use against the people."

"You would not do that," She reiterated. "But you must not be sent back to Earth unless Be'lar goes with you." She meant me. That was as close as she had ever managed to get to my name. I liked it though. It sounded Na'vi.

"Why?" Jim was as bewildered as I was. "I don't think Quaritch has the power to send Blair anywhere. Blair answers to Grace, not Quaritch."

"Then you must not go." Mo'at tended to be single-minded at times.

"I don't want to, Mo'at!" Jim was getting a little frustrated, because he still didn't know how he was going to keep Quaritch from doing anything he wanted to do, including sending Jim to Earth.

Jim was focusing on that aspect. It occurred to me, though that there was another point to what Mo'at had said.

"Mo'at," I started. "Why would it be so bad for him to go without me, beside the obvious problem of having to go at all."

"You are bonded. You will not survive," she answered matter of factly. "Either of you."

Both Jim and I were stunned silent for a moment, but I found my voice first. "What do you mean, bonded?"

"Surely the Cha'la'lei sees this," She turned to Jim.

"I know you said we would bond," he looked at me for help. "I didn't know we had."

"I can see it. As Cha'la'lei, you should be able to, also."

It took him a while to realize that she meant literally see. "What should I be seeing?"

"Look at BeLar!" She directed. "Tell me what you see that is different from what you see when looking at others."

I was expecting him to say that he didn't see anything different, but he answered, "Do you mean the blue glow?"

"Yes, the blue glow." She nodded. 

"Jim," I interrupted. "I glow blue and you didn't think to tell me about this?"

"I didn't really think anything about it. I just thought it was just because you're my guide."

"It is," Mo'at confirmed, "but there is more. Look at BeLar's chest...over his heart."

Jim did as ordered and seemed genuinely surprised. "The glow is reaching out from his chest."

"Now look at your own chest."

"There's a glow there too...reaching out to Blair." Jim walked around and watched his chest and mine. "It moves." He was in awe, and then stopped directly in front of me and put his hand on my shoulder. "Chief, we're attached! There's a thin blue line connecting us."

Stunned silent twice in as many minutes...that had to be some kind of record for me. "And you didn't notice this before?"

Mo'at answered for him. "He would not have been looking for it."

"So what does that mean?" I just wasn't quite getting this.

"Your bond is weak...newborn. So I am not quite sure what the effect of separation would be. With a full bond, Cha'la'lei and Cy’ela can be very far apart and still feel each other, but I doubt even a full bond would survive being on two different planets." She could tell we still didn't understand, so she continued. "Once the bond was stretched beyond capacity, it would feel to each of you like the other had just died. In a full bond, in Na'vi bodies, neither Cha'la'lei nor Cy’ela survive the death of the other."

Jim mulled this over for a while and finally said, "Then that's just one more reason to make sure I stay on the planet."

No one seemed to have anything more to say on the subject and Jim started to just wander away. I said our 'goodbye's' to Mo'at and followed my silent sentinel. This day was just getting better and better.

*/*/*/*/* 

Part 7

Finally the six weeks was over and I was in the lab for the first time Jim took his Avatar for a test drive. I didn't know whether to laugh, get upset with him, or just plain get the hell out of Dodge. We have a protocol for this stuff. Jim had pretty much been taking a crash course in all things 'Avatar' for the last six weeks. So, he knew he was supposed to lie still for a while and let the technicians take his vitals, do some simple tests, etc. One of the many things I had learned in my own crash course on all things 'Jim' was that my sentinel didn't do 'still'. So, of course, the moment his avatar's eyes flickered open, he was trying to sit up. We have these protocols for a reason. It takes a while to get used to manipulating a different body, and man were the avatar bodies different than what any human was used to. Didn't seem to matter to Jim. He was sitting before the techs could stop him, and standing a beat after that. He almost collapsed for a second, but he caught himself easily against the bed, while the techs tried to scurry out of the way, and obstruct his passage...all at the same time. 

Everyone was shouting at the same time. 

"Sit down."

"Get the sedative."

"Can you get him down?"

Jim wasn't listening to anyone. He was walking around, flexing his muscles, looking down at the little humans who thought they had a prayer of stopping him.

"Hmm." He said to me when he saw me (in human form) standing in the doorway. "You and Grace were right. It is a little silly to have humans try to protect avatars. Was this what I looked like from your point of view?" He gestured to the techs that were now all but literally having kittens. "How did you keep from laughing."

"Just barely did keep from it sometimes, but the fact that my little human had a big assed gun and several pounds of C4 bolstered my resolve."

He laughed, and tried to make his way across the lab to get to me. He turned quickly, and...

"Jim, wait!" I wasn't fast enough. The tray clattered to the floor, two techs jumped out of the way. A third tech was still dancing around Jim with a hypodermic, trying to put him out before he did more damage. "You have a tail now, Jim."

He looked at the destruction on the floor and looked back to me. "What the hell do I want one of those for?"

"Kind of comes with the package, Jim. It's for balance."

"Well, it's throwing off my balance!" He looked at the offending appendage like he was seriously contemplating cutting it off if he could just find his knife.

"Gee, Jim. I wonder if that might be why Grace came up with a series of very slow steps of getting used to your Avatar body, instead of all of us just jumping up and wreaking havoc every time we got a new driver?"

His look clearly said 'shut up Junior'. I couldn't help but laugh, which didn't make the look go away.

"Sit down, Jim. Go through the steps you've been studying for 6 weeks. Let the techs do their job, before Martha figures out a way to bring you down with that needle that I swear is growing by the minute."

He looked at the mentioned tech as though seeing her for the first time. "Doesn't look that big from here."

"It's big enough to take you out, then we'd just have to go through this lovely exercise as soon as your avatar body was ready to wake up again." He stood his ground another second. "Just sit Jim."

He finally decided to calm down and do this right, much to everyone's surprise. Poor Martha looked like she was going to pass out now that the crisis had passed. The other techs had various looks on their faces... anywhere from humor to mild disgust if they weren't actively involved in a task right away, and anywhere from concentration to relief on the faces of those who were busy. Jim just sat there with a 'shit-eating' grin on his face, flexing his muscles.

He finally was cooperating pretty well but suddenly sat up, tense.

Before I could ask him 'what'. He jumped up and started toward the air field.

"Not again," one of the techs said and scurried along behind him.

"Jim, what...," I started, but he put up his hand to 'shhh' me.

"Wounded." That's all he said at first, and I had no clue what he meant. I didn't see or hear anything that could indicate that someone was wounded. Finally, though, he took off running...in a hospital gown no less (or should that be 'no more'?) "Damn it. Quaritch attacked a hunting party!" He said and then he was gone. As good as literally gone...swallowed up by the jungle in no time. Avatars can eat up ground when they wanted to and Jim really wanted to at the moment.

"Shit," was my brilliant retort, as I ran back to the lab and my docking station.

*/*/*/*

By the time I had my Avatar up and running (literally), I had no idea which way Jim had gone, or where he might be now. I was wandering around, trying to read signs...broken twigs, footprints, anything, that might tell me where my sentinel was. I could always tell when Jim was around...just a feeling of some sort....but all I could tell at the moment was that he wasn't around, which did exactly nothing to tell me where he actually was! Too damn bad I couldn’t see that blue band that connected us, like Jim could.

Suddenly, several dozen hy'ala just appeared out of nowhere. I never understood that. These things are rarely ever seen, but when they're there, they're just there. No approach noticed; just not there one minute, swarming the next. Anyway, I really didn't have time for them at the moment, and I told them so...not that I expected them to answer me. They did though, in a way. They started 'pushing' at me, with a couple in front leading me farther into the jungle. So this is what it had felt like for Jim all those weeks ago?

The little 'powder puffs', bless their little dandelion souls, led me right to Jim. I didn't know what I had expected, but it certainly hadn't been what I actually found. Jim sat on the ground, his newly minted avatar hunched over Reyin, Kylea’s brother, and was surrounded by six Na'vi men. I hadn't even been sure that Na'vi could cry, but they all were. I didn't find out until much later what had happened. The boy had been out on his first hunting party - the rite of passage - hunting small game...kind of the Pandora equivalent of a squirrel (well, a three foot long squirrel with a full mouth of sharp teeth and six legs). Quaritch and his goonies, all in exoskeletons (which made them the same size as the Na’vi) and with really big guns, decided the locals were being aggressive so they opened fired. The hunters scattered for shelter, but Reyin wasn't skilled enough yet to get out of the line of fire in time. The colonel, damn his soul to any hell that would have him, just pushed through the scene and continued farther into the jungle. Who knew where he was by this time. No one seemed to care at the moment. (Jim told me much later that he had been keeping an ear on Quaritch and knew that he had doubled back and was heading to the chopper he had waiting. Several runners had been sent to warn ‘home tree’, in case he was headed there, but right now, everyone was taking a moment to mourn their youngest warrior. 

*/*/*/*

We were out the whole rest of the day. I radioed Grace to let her know what was going on. She was as livid with Quaritch as the rest of us, and , of course, she okayed our use of the Avatars for as long as we needed them.  
The Omaticaya have very little in the way of a burial ritual. They basically wrapped the body, put it in a freshly dug hole and asked Eywa to watch over the spirit’s journey to her. But, what they lacked in ritual, they made up for in emotion. The loss of a child it seemed, on any planet, was devastating. Reyin’s mother and sister were inconsolable. The dad handled the death in his own way. It seemed that there was just a little more ritual if the deceased was a warrior. He was then buried with his weapon and was remembered as a fallen warrior. Reyin’s dad, Celchi, wanted that for his son. It created a controversy, though. Technically, Reyin had not yet killed his first animal and therefore was still a child, and, of course, children could not be warriors. One of the hunters pointed out that even if they had been successful, Reyin had only been on a hunt and had not gone off to fight in a battle. Celchi pointed out that his son was felled in a battle none the less.

Jim had listened to the debate for a while, without joining in, but finally wandered away. I followed, of course. He was silent all the way back. We both put our Avatars to bed, and woke up in our respective docking stations. I hadn’t even gotten completely out of mine yet before Jim stormed out of the lab. I kept up as best I could, but Jim could out-stride me on the best of days, let alone when he was angry. To make matters worse, I had no idea of where he was going. I would have expected him to go to one or the other of our quarters, but he was heading in the wrong direction.

I heard a disgruntled, ‘Geez, Ellison!” and set a new course. Where was he going? I lost him again and asked a nearby soldier. He rolled his eyes and pointed to the hanger. I had no idea why Jim would head toward the hanger, but made it to the doorway just in time to find out.

Quaritch had been working on his exoskeleton when Jim stormed up to him, grabbed him and slammed him into the machine.

“What the hell did you think you were doing?” Jim shouted. “Is this how you get your kicks, Quaritch? Killing kids?”

Quaritch, for his part, didn’t look the least bit intimidated as he looked directly at Jim and answered. “We have to teach these savages who’s the boss at some point. Might as well be today.”

“He was a kid!”

“He had a weapon,” the colonel sneered. “He was fair game.”

“Fair game?” Jim roared, getting even angrier and losing what little control he had left. Oh god, he was going to hit Quaritch!  
I had closed the distance between me and Jim by then, so I took my life in my hands and grabbed his arm.

“Jim! Stop!”

As expected, he dropped Quaritch and rounded on me, not knowing if I was friend or foe, at first. As soon as he realized it was just me, he turned back to Quaritch, but had lost momentum by then and had gained just a little control.

“You’re not worth it,” Jim ground out and he grabbed my shoulders and we stared toward the door.

“Big mistake, Ellison.” Quaritch retaliated. “Maybe you need a lesson on who’s the boss.” As much as I expected the colonel to say more, he just grinned and turned back to the exoskeleton. I was really afraid that we had just handed Quaritch a victory and Jim didn’t even realize it…yet.

*/*/*/*

Jim stormed ahead again, but this time it was obvious where he was going. I gave him a bit of a head-start, but followed him to his room. Wrong answer, as it turns out. By the time I got there, the place was well on its way toward being totally trashed. As I opened the door, an object that used to be a lamp, slammed into the door-jam just to the left of my head. 

“Jim!” I practically squealed. “Watch out!”

“Sorry, Chief.” Anger drained out of my sentinel like I had flipped a switch and he practically collapsed on the bed. “Damn Chief.   
Quaritch killed one of my kids and thinks he was totally justified.”

“Yeah. He’s an asshole,” I agreed. “But you may have made it worse here, Jim.”

“I don’t care! He had no right to…”

“I know Jim, but he’s the one in charge here, and technically you still answer to him. It would be nothing for him to rotate you back to Earth.”

“No way, Junior.” Jim was getting angry again and he didn’t really think very clearly when he was angry. “I’ll just take the Avatar and go so deep into the jungle, he’ll never find me.”

“No, Jim.” I rolled my eyes. “He’ll never find it…the avatar. But he’ll just storm the lab, jerk open the lid to the docking station, and ‘looky,looky, there you are’.”

“Oh yeah,” he looked like he had honestly forgotten that.

“Yeah Jim, ‘oh yeah’.”

“Screwed up, huh?” He looked totally distraught.

“Yeah, maybe,” I agreed. “But hopefully not. Everything’s coming to a head one way or the other anyway. I can feel it.”

“So, what are we going to do about it, Chief?” He managed a small grin.

“What we always do, my friend.” I patted his leg. “Wing it!”

He grinned a little more sincerely then, and we just sat in silence for a while. 

I thought of a question I’d really like an answer to, but wasn’t sure it was the right time. I decided to try it. “Jim. How did you know there was wounded?”

“I smelled blood.”

“From that distance?”

Jim just nodded. “I knew it was one of my people too." I wasn’t sure at what point Jim had started to totally identify with the Na’vi instead of humans at all, but it had happened somewhere along the line. "Na’vi blood smells different than human blood.” 

"You said 'Quaritch fired on a hunting party'." I started and Jim knew my next question was going to be wondering how he knew that.

"I heard the gunfire, and then the hunting party's voices and then Quaritch's."

"You smelled blood, and heard voices from over a mile away?" 

He shrugged. "Yeah, I guess...well, the avatar could."

Jim fell silent again. I made a mental note that we really needed to test the range of Jim’s senses again, this time in Avatar form, but for now I just let him sit.

He finally broke the silence.“I can feel him, you know.”

“What?” I am the king of brilliant responses, sometimes.

“Reyin, I can feel him…in the flow of energy.”

Okay, this was new. “What? Like, individually? Can you talk to him?”

“No, I can’t make out individuals or anything.” He said thoughtfully. “I can sense a change in the flow of energy. In avatar form. I can SOMEwhat now, but not as much” I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I just waited for him to continue. “I could sense him when he was alive, too…again, not individually, just…kind of knew he was part of the living people. Now, there is kind of a ‘less-ness’ of the living, but more of the spirits. I’m assuming that’s Reyin.”

“Jim, you never cease to amaze me. Just when I think I’ve got a handle on this ‘sentinel’ thing, you throw something else into the mix.”

“Believe me Junior. I’d take it all out of the mix, sometimes, if I could.” He fell silent for a minute, then continued. “Then, at other times, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

“Yeah man. I know what you mean.” We sat in silence for a long while.

When I thought we’d wallowed enough for now, I tried to lighten the mood. “You know? You and I spend more time in bed together than I have with any three of my girlfriends combined.”

He took the bait. “First of all, Junior…that’s just really sad. And second of all we’re not in bed. We’re on the bed.” He grabbed my waist and threw me back on the bed. “Now we’re in bed.” Then the jerk actually tickled me!

“It’s no use, Jim. I’m not ticklish.” I gritted out while giggling like a girl.

He continued to tickle for a while and watched me squirm, then grabbed me again, rolled over, and dumped my on my ass on the floor. “Don’t you have work to do, blue boy?”

“You’re a blue boy now too, don’t forget.”

He stood up, grabbed me by the arms and pulled me to my feet. “I’m a ‘blue man’. And don’t you forget it!” 

I gave him a scathing look, “You’re an asshole. That’s what you are.”

“Yeah, that too.” He grinned as he pushed me to the door. “Let’s get back to work before Grace thinks we ran off again.”

*/*/*/*

Part 8

By the time we got to the lab, Grace was engaged in a fairly heated argument with Quaritch’s second in command.

“Come on, Bryant,” Grace was all but in the commander’s face. “Even you have got to admit that the military shouldn’t have free reign to kill any of the indigenous population, let alone children.”

Bryant was a pretty good guy, actually. Jim and I had had some contact with him over the last several weeks…enough to know that he didn’t see eye-to-eye with Quaritch about much of anything. Now, though, Grace was putting him in the position where, I’m sure, he felt he needed to defend the military.

“What were they supposed to do, Grace? Quaritch said the boy fired on them and the rest were getting ready to.”

“Bullshit!” Jim inserted himself into the conversation.

“How would you know, Ellison? You weren’t there.” Bryant bristled.

“I didn’t have to be there to know that my p… none of the Na’vi would have fired without provocation…especially not with a first time hunter with them.”

“Quaritch said they did.”

“Quaritch is a lying asshole.”

The voices of the two men were escalating each time they spoke. Grace saw it too, and intervened. “Could you two either make nice or get a room?” As intended, that shocked the two men into silence long enough for her to continue. “Even if the kid did fire on Quaritch’s team, they were in exoskeletons. What damage would a poisoned arrow do to them? I fail to see a real threat here.”

The two men had calmed a lot. “That’s really not even the point, Grace.” Bryant started. “You need to keep your people in line.” He looked at Jim when he said that, and Jim rolled his eyes. “You can’t just confront Quaritch like that. He’s about ready to launch some kind of initiative anyway, and he’s just looking for provocation. He may try to use this kid’s ‘attack’ to get permission from the higher ups. The last thing he needs is more fuel to the fire.”

Jim actually looked a little contrite at that. “Yeah, I know.” He looked at me. “I’ve already been properly chastised.” 

“Look,” Bryant continued, including all of us. “Just between us, I think Jim’s right. Quaritch is an asshole. But he’s a dangerous asshole, and getting him more riled up than he already is, is a bad idea. I’m on your side, believe it or not. But there’s only so much I can do.”

Jim finally answered. “Point taken.”

*/*/*/*/*

The next couple of days went along as normal… well, as far as the military situation was concerned. They were kind of important days for Jim and me. As soon as Mo’at realized that Jim had his avatar now, she pushed for a ceremonial acceptance into the clan, for both of us, and for a permanent bond for Jim and me…Cha’la’lei and Cy’ela….Sentinel and Guide.

I’ve got to admit, the thoughts of a ‘permanent bond’ scared me to death. I mean, what the hell did that mean? Mo’at explained enough that it set my mind at ease a little. It wasn’t a sexual bond -or physical at all really, except for the first actual link. She reminded us that we already had a bond, but now that we both had avatar bodies, we could access it better. Once we had this ‘full bond’, I’d be able to ‘see’ the bond like Jim did… well, not as precisely as he did, but better than I did now, and know where he was all the time, and what condition he was in. That could only be a plus. So, I agreed and we both found ourselves in spirit tree front of the entire tribe.

“Ewya has brought us a Cha’la’lei, and has also provided his Cy’ela,” Mo’at started. “Na’vi spirits, who lost their way and were born on a distant planet, are now returned to us. We are gathered here to welcome them back as full and honored members of the Omaticaya.”

That’s pretty much all there was to it. Everyone put their hands on us, and it was done. We were actual members of the tribe. I couldn’t help but think that Grace would be green with envy.

Everyone started to file out in small groups, but Mo’at turned to us and told us that we needed to stay, that the bond would be made in private before Ewya.

“Mo’at,” Jim was anxious. “I don’t know what to do.”

She gently took Jim’s braid in one hand, and mine in the other and nodded to us. We took the braids from her and touched them together. The tendrils inside the braids reached for each other and entwined, as I had seen Mo’at’s or Jim’s entwine with the tendrils within spirit tree to speak to Ewya, as I had seen members of the tribe do with their ‘horses’ or the large ‘birds’ they flew. 

We both smiled. I could immediately ‘feel’ Jim…not his thoughts, exactly, but I had a sense that he was there. Not just there in front of me, but there with me. I knew what he was feeling, and had a sense that I would be able to find him anywhere. From what Mo’at had said, I had expected to be able to see the blue cord that Jim saw, the one that connected us. I could… and I couldn’t. It didn’t form a cord, and it didn’t really look blue, but I could see a shimmer in the air between us that I couldn’t see before.

Mo’at smiled and said, “I will leave you now.”

Jim and I stayed until the shock – albeit a good shock – wore off. Then we headed home. 

*/*/*/*/*

Jim and I spent much of our time in the days after the ceremony as we had for the last months, trying to convince Mo’at to move the people from home tree. She, and the warriors, as always, saw that as a sign of defeat. They would stand and fight to defend home tree until they drove the ‘demons’ from their land, or until the warriors themselves died. Knowing Quaritch the way we did, and knowing the fire power the Na’vi would be up against, we were pretty sure of which would happen first.

“Mo’at,” Jim tried again. “Quaritch isn’t going to wait much longer. He knows you won’t voluntarily give up home tree, and that means he can’t get his precious mineral. Besides which, this is personal for him. He doesn’t like to lose, and he will never give up. Sooner or later – and I’m betting sooner – he will attack home tree and many people will die.”

“We will not give up our…” Mo’at started the same answer that she’d been giving all this time.

But, this time Jim stopped her. “Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t fight. We’ll stand until the last warrior dies…either on our side or theirs. But we need to protect the innocents. No more of my children can die, Mo’at. I just won’t survive that.”

I was so used to Mo’at just dismissing all of our arguments, that I was shocked when she reacted differently. She put a hand on either side of Jim’s face and looked deeply into his eyes. “You carry every death as a scar on your soul…not just Omaticaya deaths…all deaths…of all the tribes you’ve had over the years. It is the mark of a great Cha’la’lei.”

No wonder Jim got so angry so fast about senseless violence and took each death or injury so hard. Did he really feel each death on his soul? He was a soldier, for god’s sake. He had been around a lot of death!

Jim didn’t flinch from the eye contact. He looked back into her eyes and said in a near whisper, “No more deaths Mo’at. Not of innocents. Not when we can prevent it.”

She continued to look into his eyes, and if it was possible to actually see a human soul, Mo’at was doing it. “We will move the children and their mothers to safer ground. The warriors will stay, but not inside home tree. We will defend our home, Cha’la’lei, but no innocents will be lost if we can help it.”

Jim answered in the same hushed voice, “Thank you Mo’at.” After a moment of silence, he continued, “Let’s start the evacuation now. I don’t know how much longer…” In mid sentence, Jim fell to the ground. Mo’at dropped to her knees, thinking he was sick or injured but I knew what had happened.

“It’s starting, Mo’at. Go move the kids and get ready for battle.” She just looked at me. “Do it now!” And I dropped beside Jim.

*/*/*/*/*

Part 9

When I woke up in my human body, it was being forcibly yanked from the docking unit. It’s very disorientating to be pulled from a link when not ready for it. It took me a moment to get my bearings and to be able to physically react to the goon hauling my ass out of the unit. By the time I had enough coordination to fight, I was in handcuffs.

The same thing must have happened to Jim, too. He was cuffed to the railing along with three other avatar drivers who happened to be out at the time, and Grace, who was mouthing off to the military thugs with words a sailor would be proud of. I didn’t know how we were going to get out of this one. There were six of us and ten of them.

I was hoping that Jim would be able to make a move when they uncuffed him from the rail. After all, he wouldn’t be disoriented now, and he was the only trained fighter among us. They must have thought of that, though, because there were three soldiers standing near him when he was uncuffed. He tried to attack with his free hand, but he was easily overpowered and in no time, our greatest hope had his hands securely cuffed behind his back. The soldiers didn’t seem to have any trouble at all hustling the struggling scientist to the holding cells, even with three of them busy with Jim.

*/*/*/*/*

“So now what?” Norm was one of the avatar drivers who had been captured and had been asking that question since we were dumped here five minutes ago.

Jim was pacing the cell and stopped only long enough to glare at Norm. All the rest of us had had our hands released when we were shoved into the cell. They didn’t uncuff Jim. They did shove him however, and by the time he got off the floor, they had closed the door. He was pissed, of course, but there was more. He felt like he failed his people. I hadn’t been sure that the bond would work in our human form as well as it did in avatar form, but now that we’d initiated the full bond, it did. I could feel what Jim was feeling. I could tell that he was barely holding it together.

“Jim,” I put my hand on his shoulder and spoke softly. “We’ll figure this out. You’ll figure this out.” Come sit down.” I hadn’t noticed seeing the shimmer of the bond between us while in human form, but now, touching him, I did.

I hadn’t really expected him to sit, but he did, and nearly whispered, “They’re out there right now, killing my people, Chief.”

“Mo’at got the kids out, Jim. She was on her way to do that when they yanked me out of the avatar.” Jim nodded, but I didn’t know if   
that meant that he could tell somehow that the kids were safe, or if he was just acknowledging that he heard me. I prayed it was the former.

The room was silent for a long while. Even Norm stayed quiet. I don’t know how much time went by before Bryant showed up. Jim just gave him a defeated look that clearly said, ‘You won, are you happy?’

Bryant returned the look defiantly. “Damn it Jim. I told you I was on your side.” With that, he tossed in the key to Jim’s handcuffs and began opening the door. He continued speaking while I uncuffed Jim. “Quaritch took the first wave out not too long ago. He left me in charge of the second wave. Of the ten gunships we have, I sent two out already to help Quaritch. The rest are manned by my men…people who agree that Quaritch has crossed the line. Quaritch thinks the second wave will back him up…he couldn’t be further from the truth.”

“They’ll fire on their own men?” Jim, now free, asked as he took quick steps out of the cell.

“I’m not sure. Some will. Some just won’t join the fight. I’ve also got men in three of Quaritch’s wave of gunships. If we could just get someone out there to lead an offensive, I think most will follow.”

“Well, I can give them someone to follow. Get me to a gunship.”

“Got one saved for you, Jim.”

Jim followed Bryant and the rest of us started to follow the sentinel.

Jim turned. "No Chief. I'm going alone." I started to protest but he continued. "I need you in avatar form...all of you." He included the three avatar drivers and Grace, then turned to Max, who usually monitored us while in avatar form. "You monitor them and make sure no one bothers them." He looked at Bryant with a questioning look at his firearm. The commander nodded and Jim continued talking to Max, "Can you fire a weapon?"

Max nodded reluctantly but said, "I'm not accurate at all."

Jim responded,"If you need it, it'll be point-blank range. I think you'll be fine" But then Jim caught the expression on Max's face. "Will you fire a weapon?" Max was obviously thinking but didn't answer, so Jim continued. "Only as a last resort, if someone was going to pull the drivers out or injure them in some way."

Max finally nodded, but added, "If they come in here like last time...ten guns to one?...whether I shoot or not won't make much difference."

Bryan put in his two cents, "They won't. As far as I know, all the men loyal to Quaritch are in the field. And if they're not, there's no reason for them to come in here again. As far as they know, you're all still in the brig."

Jim continued. "By the time they realize you're a danger again, they won't have time to get back here."

"What if there are still men loyal to Quaritch here and the ones in the field radio back?"

We were wasting too much time here, so I tried to move things along. "Max, we don't have time for 'what if's'!"

Jim added, holding out Bryant's gun. "Can you do this or not?"

After another moment's hesitation, Max took the gun and we all started toward our target positions. I hesitated long enough to throw a heartfelt "Be careful," to Jim.

He nodded but answered, "No one hurts my people, Chief!"

That didn't actually reassure me that he would be careful, but I didn't really have a choice in all this...neither did he really...so I accepted the answer and turned toward the docking station.

*/*/*/*/*

I woke up in Spirit tree. Mo'at must have had our avatar bodies moved there, out of harm’s way. I gathered the gun that Jim had always brought with him...just because he was cleared to do so and he thought that would give us one good gun when the inevitable fight came. Then, after just a second to make sure my sentinel's avatar was safe, I ran to Home Tree as fast as I could.

The scene there was about what I had expected, but I had really hoped I was going to be proven wrong. The helicopters were still a little way out, but not nearly far enough. It was going to take too long for Jim's group to get there if we didn't slow this wave down somehow. 

Mo'at was in front of the group when I got there, giving orders fast and furiously. There were more foot soldiers than I would have thought possible, but they were equipped only with bows and arrows and knives. They would mean nothing to soldiers suited up in the exoskeletons that were equipped with huge guns and monstrous knives, but we might have a chance against the unsuited ones. There weren't enough exo-suits for all of them. Jim had long ago wondered about the possibility of sneaking out a few guns at a time to arm the warriors, but we decided the risk was too great. If Quaritch tipped to our change of allegiance too soon, he'd just ship Jim, or possibly both of us, back to Earth. So, we were going to have to be creative if we had a prayer of defeating the foot soldiers. 

We had an aerial defense too. Some of the warriors had bonded with the ikron, a sort of flying dinosaur thing. That would get our men into the transports. They'd still be armed with primitive weapons, but at least Quaritch's goons wouldn't necessarily be suited in the exoskeletons, yet. So, our aerial force might have a chance of killing off some of the potential ground reinforcements, or maybe even of disabling some of the gunships.

There were only two places helicopters could land anywhere near home tree, so I went with the ground force to the nearest LZ. We didn't dare cut our numbers in half trying to cover both of them. Two other avatars came with us. Grace and Norm assisted the evacuation of the last of the villagers. Most were already gone, but there hadn't been time yet to get everyone out, so the slowest were still left...the oldest, and the youngest. The last I saw, as I glanced back over my shoulder, was Grace with a little kid on each hip, following the rest out of the tree.

*/*/*/*

A group of us was positioned just out of sight at the landing zone. There were four exo-suited soldiers in this group. We stayed behind the trees and waited. If we gave away our position too fast the suited soldiers would just open fire and that would be that. If we waited too long, the most protected men would be past us and we'd have fire from two sides. I wasn't a soldier, but I knew that wouldn't be good. 

The Na'vi warriors didn't really have a system of rank. When any one of the more experienced ones had an idea the others would follow, so leaders could change several times during a battle. That's probably a decent system when the battles are against warring tribes with comparable fire power, but it wouldn't work here. They were all looking to me though, and I was anything but completely confident in my own ability to lead in this situation. I knew enough basic game theory, and had caught enough of Jim's talk about strategy that I wasn't totally clueless, but not far from it. All I knew for sure was that we had to mow down as many men here as possible. The more we let through was that many more that the soldiers positioned deeper in the jungle would have to deal with. And these men could not be allowed to reach home tree.

We did have a few advantages. These warriors knew this jungle like the back of their hand, and were masters at disappearing. I knew about how many men were out there and knew where I saw them last, but I couldn't see any of them now. I waited behind one of the bigger trees and waited for the exo-suits. I knew I couldn't actually damage the suit, but If I could compromise the air of the soldier within it, we might have a chance. All of the warriors waited until I fired the first shot at the Plexiglas of the nearest exoskeleton, then all hell broke loose. 

*/*/*/*/* 

When the soldiers stopped going by, there were a lot lying on the ground, including two exoskeletons, but we probably let over half through. Also, the helicopters still airborne saw what was happening on the ground and broke off. I'm sure they went to the other LZ, which didn’t get rid of them completely, but it was a lot farther away than this one, so that bought us more time.

There weren’t nearly as many of us now, but we decided to split up after all. Some of the warriors went toward the other LZ to meet those soldiers. The rest of us tried to cut off the ones that had gotten through before they got to home tree. We managed to take out several more, but by now our ranks were dwindling to the point where we really weren’t much of a threat anymore. 

We took a short cut to home tree to try to meet up with other warriors before the human soldiers turned up, but by the time we arrived the helicopters had already gotten there, and were firing incendiaries into home tree. It was still standing, but the damage was pretty devastating already and was showing no signs of stopping. The second wave of helicopters – our wave – had finally shown up and was doing some damage. Some were getting in front of the others; some were attacking from behind. Our warriors on ikron were trying to confuse the issue any way they could. All of that was dividing attention and slowing down the destruction of home tree. It wasn’t stopping it, and I could tell that none of the warriors really thought it would, but it was slowing it down, and that was something. Mo’at tried to keep a hopeful face for the people, but I could tell – and probably everyone else could too – that she wasn’t at all sure we could save our home.

There wasn’t much for us to do at the moment but watch the battle in the sky and wait for the human soldiers on the ground to get there. I knew just which helicopter Jim was in, so, consequently, figured out which one Quaritch was in. There was no way that Jim would let anyone else take the colonel down. He had killed one of Jim’s kids, and there would be hell to pay now that Jim had adequate fire power.

It didn’t take long for the foot soldiers to get there, and I was then otherwise occupied, but I knew – through the bond, I guess – the moment that Jim’s helicopter was hit. I just felt it. I couldn’t help it. I looked up, and almost got shot for my effort.

“Look out, BeLar!” one of the other warriors shot the soldier who was aiming at me.  
“It’s Jim. I’ve got to go!” I ran through the jungle faster than I had ever run anywhere. I knew just where Jim was and I also knew I had to get there fast. Not only was Jim’s helicopter crashing, but Quaritch’s was as well, and if there was any way at all that the bastard could survive the crash, he’d be way too close to Jim for my comfort.

I was half way there when I could feel that Jim had killed Quaritch, but that he’d also been hurt. There were a few warriors nearby by then…drawn by the crashing warships, and they told me later that both Jim and Quaritch had made it out of the copters in masks and battled each other with knives. Thankfully, Quaritch hadn’t had time to get a gun, but then, neither had Jim. They both did considerable damage to the other before Jim had finally made the fatal blow. But, Quaritch had gotten in quite a few near fatal blows himself and Jim was in bad shape by the time I got there. He was bleeding from his right side, and gasping for breath, even with the mask on – probably from a collapsed lung. His head was bloody and I couldn’t tell immediately whether it was from blunt impact or a knife. His left leg was bleeding profusely and I knew that most likely, his femoral artery had been cut. I knew he was alive – I could feel that from the bond, as well as see the rise and fall of his chest - but I also knew just how much of an effort it was taking him to stay that way. I gathered him into my arms without even thinking that maybe he shouldn’t be moved. His head rolled listlessly against my shoulder, and I knew he needed help, but I didn’t know what to do. He wouldn’t make it back to the human camp, and Mo’at was at home tree, which was also too far away for Jim to make it. 

Somewhere along the line, Grace had shown up. She said later that she had followed me when I ran from home tree. She heard me say ‘It’s Jim’ and wanted to see if maybe she could help. By the time she got there, she was pretty certain that no one could help. She knelt down beside me and put a hand on my shoulder, just to let me know that someone was there.

I was too wrapped up in Jim to notice, though. He was saying something between gasps and it was all I could do to hear him.

“Spirit tree,” he gasped. “Hurry.”

“It’s too far Jim,” I didn’t know why he wanted to go there. “Mo’at’s at home tree. That’s our best bet. I’ll try to get you there.”

“Spirit tree,” he insisted. “Go to Eywa.”

My heart clinched. “No, Jim. You stay here. Eywa can wait till much later to have you. You stay with me.”

“Spirit tree.”

Grace gripped my shoulder a little and said, “Blair, if he wants to die at spirit tree, we need to try to get him there.”

I exploded. “He is not going to die. I won’t let him. He has to stay with me! I won’t lose him!”

She just gripped my shoulder again and gave me a sympathetic look. “What would it hurt to take him to spirit tree, Blair?”

I couldn’t really answer that. It wouldn’t really hurt anything one way or the other, I didn’t guess, except that I think I was afraid that Jim would give up once at spirit tree if the reason he wanted to go there was to die near Eywa. 

While I hesitated, Jim started mumbling - in Na’vi, no less. I understood it though, and I didn’t like it. He was talking to Eywa. “I’m coming. I’ll be there soon. Help me cross over. Be with Blair.”

“Damn it Jim. Don’t you leave me!” I held him tight but finally got up. If he wanted to go to spirit tree that badly, I’d do that for him. But I wasn’t going to let him just give up either.

By then, several warriors had gathered around. Celchi approached me and asked if he could help. He was now near enough to hear what Jim was saying and he looked me in the eye. “BeLar. If he knows the end is near, and wants to go to spirit tree, you should take him now. The will of Eywa cannot be denied. I will gather his weapons and bring them to spirit tree. I do not know if there are other rituals involved in burying a Che’la’lei.”

I rounded on him. “He is not going to die!”

Grace gave me a gentle push and got me moving toward spirit tree. As soon as Jim felt me moving, he repeated, “Hurry.” And then he must have passed out. He stopped talking and went even limper in my arms. I was nearly frantic to keep him from dying, but I didn’t know what I could do, so I honored Jim’s wishes and raced off toward spirit tree.

As I left, I heard Grace talking to Celchi. “Gather the weapons, Celchi, and send someone to have Mo’at meet us at spirit tree. You’re a good friend. BeLar will see that at some point. Right now….”

“He is grieving.” Celchi finished. I guess I was, in a way, but I wasn’t going to give up hope just yet.

*/*/*/*/*/*

By the time we got to spirit tree, I wasn’t sure Jim was even breathing anymore. I hadn’t heard him gasp for breath for a while, and the mumbling had long since stopped. Mo’at met me at the entrance and told me to put Jim in a small clearing in the middle of the tree. His avatar body was already lying there, covered by what looked like white roots. They were all over the body, but concentrated in a cord running into the back of its neck, by where the brain stem would be. I wasn’t sure if this was an odd burial ritual reserved for Sentinels, or because he was in the rare position of having two bodies that needed to be buried, or if it would be a way to cure him, but I did as Mo’at directed. I couldn’t think of anything else to do.

As soon as I lay Jim’s body down, the roots started covering his human body as well, and soon enough, there was a cord into his brain stem as well. I was numb now, and didn’t even have the strength to ask what was happening. All I knew was that Jim was still breathing – barely, but he was.

Thankfully, Mo’at didn’t wait to be asked before she explained. “Eywa will not abandon her Cha’la’lei, BeLar. Zjim has a Na’vi spirit and was always supposed to be a Na’vi. This little human body somehow captured his spirit by mistake. Eywa has provided a way to correct this mistake. This little body has served him well until now, but now it is dying.” I made a noise at this point that was part gasp, and part sob, but Mo’at was quick to continue. “It is time that the Cha’la’lei reside in his rightful Na’vi body. Eywa will guide his spirit from this body,” she pointed to the now completely covered human body, “to this one,” she transferred her hands and her gaze to the avatar.

I was dumbfounded. All I heard was ‘dying’ and I was beside myself with grief. I knelt beside Jim’s body – both of them, I guess – and waited. I didn’t have a clue what I was waiting for, but it was obvious Jim wasn’t going to recover. His human body was just too damaged. I watched as the little body took its last breath and Mo’at took off Jim’s mask. I put my hand on his face and a little sob escaped. “Jim.”

Mo’at looked expectantly at the avatar, but nothing happened. I could still feel Jim, but it was more diffuse. It was more like he was just all around than that he was centered in any particular place. It reminded me of how he described Reyin after he died. Mo’at still looked unconcerned, but in her culture, no one really died. They became part of Eywa, or in some cases one of the hy’ala. But that’s not what I wanted for Jim. That wasn’t life as I knew it – as I wanted to know it when applied to Jim. I wanted him here - with me - in corporeal form.

I was so absorbed in the lack of movement of Jim’s body that I didn’t notice when Grace – who must have followed me after talking to Celchi – put a hand on my shoulder. “Blair,” she said quietly. I don’t know how many times she said that before I actually responded, but once I finally looked at her, she said, “Look,” and pointed to the avatar.

I couldn’t tell what she wanted me to see at first. It was still covered with the roots, and still motionless – not that I expected it to move. But then I noticed it. The avatar’s fingers moved briefly - just twitched really - then again...and again. I looked at Mo’at and she just smiled and nodded. I had such a hard time abandoning Jim’s human body, but as the avatar moved more and more, I finally gave Jim’s human face one last stroke and then moved to the avatar’s side. “Jim?” I put my hand on his avatar face, not believing my eyes as his head turned into my touch. “Is that you big guy? Did you come back to me?” Slowly – so slowly – the avatar (Jim?) moved more and more, until he finally opened his eyes.

“Chief?” He croaked, and it was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard.

“Jim!” I kept my hand on his face and captured one of his now searching hands with the other. “I don’t believe it. You came back!”

“Never left,” his voice was still weak, but I knew – somehow - that it wouldn’t take him long to regain his strength. All I could do was bring his hand to my face, and cry.

He turned his hand in my grasp until he was palming my face as I was his. “You’re such a girl,” he smiled as he brushed away the tears from my cheek.

*/*/*/*/*/*/*

The world outside had faded away this whole time, but once Jim was back on his feet, it was time to check out the damage. We headed toward home tree but my mind was only partly on what we might find there. I couldn’t take my eyes off Jim. He’d been returned to me through some miracle and I still couldn’t quite believe it. 

The view at home tree shook me out of my revelry, though. The tree was still standing, but there were huge holes blasted in the side of it, and parts of the base didn’t look that stable. The good news, though, was that the helicopters were leaving…all of them.

“What happened?” Jim asked Norm as we approached the avatar driver.

“Bryant saw you and Quaritch go down and figured the colonel was as good as dead.” Norm answered. “He radioed the troops and announced that he was taking command and ordered everyone to stand down. They all headed back to the base almost right away. I think most of the men were just waiting for an excuse to stop fighting. Only Quaritch really wanted this.” He gestured to the damage in the huge tree.

Jim nodded and set about helping the rest of the warriors clear debris and collect the dead for later burial. Several warriors had already left to find the ikron and their pilots who had been shot down, as well as the bodies of the warriors who died farther into the forest. Grace filled Norm in on what had happened with Jim, while they too helped in the clean up.

*/*/*/*/*

It was hours later when we finally got back to camp. I put my avatar to bed and told Jim I’d meet him in the lab, the same as we’d done the whole time I’d known him. It seemed strange to me though, that this time, I’d wake up in the docking unit alone and Jim would meet me in the avatar-sized lab attached to the compound. It hadn’t occurred to me until just then that Jim had died. Oh, he lived on now, in the avatar body permanently, and for that I was grateful, but a way of life - everything he had been used to before - had died. 

When I made my way to the lab where Jim was waiting, he laughed…actually laughed.

“What’s so funny, blue boy?” I appreciated his attempt to lighten the mood.

“I’ve gotten used to you being shorter than me, Chief, but this is ridiculous!” And he continued laughing.

Bryant and his new command team met us in the lab, in deference to Jim’s new size, and filled us in on what had been happening in the last several hours.

“I informed command of Quaritch’s death and just what he had authorized before that. Command is denying any knowledge of Quaritch’s intentions, let alone that they had given him permission. But that’s about what I suspected. We’ll never really know if Quaritch acted alone or if Command is just covering its ass.” He hopped up on the edge of the overlarge examining table and looked at Jim who had sat down against the wall, trying to bring his eye level closer to everyone else. “Command has decided that if we can’t step up the mining, we might as well pull out. Mining the trace amounts we can get elsewhere on the planet isn’t bringing in enough money anymore to fund the operations here, especially the avatar project.” He looked at Grace. “They’ve decided that if we can’t negotiate with the natives for mining rights of the two mother loads, there is really no reason to stay. They’re pulling us out as soon as they can get enough transports here…all of us, Grace.”

“But we’ve just scratched the service on what we can learn scientifically from this planet. The knowledge that we could gain here far surpasses…” Grace started in indignantly, but was interrupted.

“I know, Grace, and for what it’s worth, I agree. But the powers that be are interested in the bottom line, and they’re not seeing the profit here.”

“But…” Grace was stunned speechless. I don’t think I have ever seen her at a loss for words before, but she was having trouble formulating a convincing argument. I could tell that she saw the inevitability of having to leave and it was breaking her heart.

Jim had been quiet in all of this, but spoke up now. “I’ll need to consult with Eywa, but I think I can offer to any who wants to stay, the same thing that Eywa did for me.”

“To be placed permanently in an avatar body?” Grace asked rhetorically. “I thought that was just done because it was an emergency.”

“As far as I know, nothing even remotely like that has ever been done before, but I can’t see why Eywa can’t do it again.”

“Oh, I’m sure she could Jim.” Grace agreed. “But, after what we did to her planet today – to her – I can’t see why she would.”

Jim gave her one of his adorable little smiles. “Because I asked?”

Grace chuckled. “You always did have a high opinion of yourself, Ellison.”

Jim just smirked again.

*/*/*/*/*/*

Bryant finished the meeting and dismissed us; and Jim made his way back to the jungle. I told him I’d meet him there, but he wanted to be alone. I didn’t like it, but I honored his wishes. He told me later that he wanted to be free to beg Eywa, if necessary, without seeming to be weak in front of me. I wish I had known that when he left. I would have told him that he could never appear weak to me. I wasn’t sure when it had happened, but somewhere along the line it had become impossible for me to imagine life without Jim. I sat in my room and hoped that Eywa would agree to Jim’s crazy plan. If we were being shut down, I wouldn’t be able to stay on the planet, and wouldn’t be able to take avatar form even if I could, so ‘Jim’s crazy plan’ was the only possible way to stay with my sentinel. I remembered Mo’at’s words about neither of us surviving a broken bond. I hadn’t really given credence to it before – not in a literal sense – but I did now. I knew I would not live without Jim. And what was worse, was that Jim would not live without me. And somehow that made me even sadder.

*/*/*/*/*/*/*

Fortunately, Eywa agreed, but only Grace and I took her up on the offer. It was a several days before we could put all of our affairs in order. In that time, we saw the soldiers and the rest of the scientists ship out, closed down the lab, and metaphorically said goodbye to everything we had ever known. Then Grace and I both found ourselves in spirit tree, facing the still forms of our avatars. It was the scariest thing I had ever done. I was voluntarily going to lie down and die, and hope that my spirit made its way to my avatar. I knew that Eywa had done this for Jim and sincerely believed that she would do it for me, but it was still scary. 

Jim was right there, though. He helped me lie down, opposite my avatar, put his hand on my face, and said, “It doesn’t hurt, chief. I’ll be waiting for you when you wake up.” He was, too. I woke up a lot quicker than Jim had. Knowing what to expect, and not being close to death in my human body beforehand, must have helped. I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was Jim’s cheesy grin. “Morning, sunshine.” Sometimes my sentinel was really full of himself.

*/*/*/*/*/*

Jim and I had spent the night in the village in avatar form before, so we helped Grace pick out a sleeping hammock and got her settled down before we went to ours. Somehow, it didn’t feel at all strange to realize that we were permanently Na’vi now, and would never be going back to Earth. This felt like home now. In fact, it felt like this had always been home. Maybe Mo’at was right. Maybe Jim and I were Na’vi spirits who had lost their way. If so, we had found it again now.

End.


End file.
